


Immortal no more

by Patatarte



Series: The Cow Crew [27]
Category: cowchop, fakechop - Fandom
Genre: Gen, I'm sorry but some people won't make it, Yes you read that right, a quick hello from funhaus and sugarpine7, also Joji, goodbye immortal, this is a partial immortal AU of the fakechop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-05 22:55:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12199038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patatarte/pseuds/Patatarte
Summary: It's a direct fic from a prompt I wrote some times ago :Gimme the crew joking after an exhausting mission, they slowly walk back to the car. And while everything is quiet and their energy is running low, Aleks gets shot mid sentence and crumbles on the ground. They do not find who shot but they get Aleks in the car as fast as possible. The russian is badly injured and feels his life going out of him. They all try, with mixed results, to be reassuring and calm, but Aleks just keeps shaking and babbling lower and lower. He doesn’t make it to the warehouse.





	Immortal no more

They made it, they found Asher and Aleks even had his revenge on the Filthy guy. Oh how he enjoyed stabbing the man to death and beyond, and Brett even let him burn the corpse. If was awful but he felt alive again, fresh, more in peace with himself now that the source of a lot of his paranoïa is gone.

Asher on the other hand looked really bad, he wasn’t talking with his usual wit. But it was understandable, he spent a lot of time there and nobody knew what he went through. And truly, he’ll never tell them, or just some big lines. He sure wants to talk because it’s so unreal, but…How will they react ? He doesn’t even know how to start the subject of immortality with James who’s supposed to be one of them.

And he doesn’t even want to tell them that yeah, they left Filthy Frank to burn, but the guy will come back anyways.

That’s a nightmare turning to be true.

The hacker looks the puddles on the floor while they walk to the cars. He sees his face, sees the dark sky, the flames reflecting on the water. He wants to find peace but can’t. He doesn’t realize he stopped walking until Trevor pushes him gently, smiling but looking exhausted walking along with Jakob.

They found him at least.

Anna waves at him with Joe from the cars, glad to find his friend alive and that’s a nice moment. Nobody was injured, even if Asher was, many times and to death, but he’s alive at that specific moment, waving back just to make his friends happy.

James and Aleks are bickering as usual and Brett even joins the voices. They insult each others while smiling, truly feeling better now that their friend is okay and the asshole is defeated. They are so loud, so alive, Asher thinks. Life is strange, he doesn’t understand nearly as much as he thought he would.

He gives one look to James, a strange look that James doesn’t really get, frowning a second before going back to his bickering with Aleks, pushing him and calling him an asshole for stealing the kill. And Aleks is smiling wildly for the first time since too long.

And that’s why it wasn’t supposed to last.

“Okay can you stop screaming you two, I feel my ears internaly bleeding” Brett is smiling while saying this too, and Aleks turns around with a dramatic look on his face, falsely shocked.

“What ? You dare to say our voices cause organs failure ? How r-”

He’s stopped mid-sentence by gunshot. And nobody really realize what’s happening until they see the Russian falls. But panic is slow to take place after such a release, they are not moving. Brett is the first to get back to the situation by looking around quickly but not seeing anyone around.

He yells orders, tells them to get cover, to run to the cars. And they do, but there’s no other gunshot. It’s just Aleks who crumbled on the floor, holding his wound weakly. James went to him and with Brett they took him to one of the cars.

Brett and James hold him firmly, more as a form of reassurance than anything else and they know it somehow. James remembers that day when he got shot and Aleks did the same for him, but he was able to talk, to scream. And maybe he died that day as well, and that’s why he’s really not feeling okay with having Aleks in that situation.

Joe is driving as fast as he can, followed close by the other car with Anna on the driver seat. They dash towards the nearest hospital, but the silence is heavy and they have no idea if it’d be enough.

Asher, from the other car, sees a figure standing out of the burning building, and can only guess it’s Miller who shot. He wanted to know if Aleks was one of them after all. He destroyed a fragile moment of peace.

And peace was never a word used by the Cow Crew, ever. It was pranks, yells, loud laughs, but never peace even in the quieter times.

Aleks just wanted peace, and he had it somehow, for a couple of minutes before being shot. He truly feels awful, moving his arm and failing to make a full move with it. Brett sees it and holds his hand, telling him to relax. James can’t help but stare as the Russian starts crying without making any expressions at all. His blood is soaking their clothes and the car’s floor.

Aleks knows he will not make it, can probably feel it.

James wonders what he’s thinking, would give him anything not to feel pain, but he can pretty much tell the Russian doesn’t feel any right now. He’s relaxed, not tense at all, pain is already gone.

Brett keeps talking, bringing the man’s hand to his mouth just because it might have more impact, more power. He’s doesn’t want him to die, not like that, not ever. They are a family, he knows him since too long for it to end like that.

Aleks opens his mouth but no words are coming out, only blood. He can’t even squeeze Brett’s fingers, can’t do anything. He doesn’t even know what he’s feeling. It’s like drugs, but before a bad trip, before it kicks and make you shiver and vomit. Here, he’s not moving, not doing anything at all.

James and him look at each other for a quick moment, and James smiles at him, doesn’t want him to see something awful before anything happens. And that’s all.

That’s all.

Aleks doesn’t move, doesn’t breath, doesn’t blink. He isn’t anymore. And Brett keeps talking, telling him to hold up and be strong. James just keeps smiling and wants to forget that pale face that’s on his lap.

“Joe, let’s go home.” James voice is quiet, almost a whisper but his friend heard him, and for once doesn’t ask him to repeat, he just obeys.

They are too far from the hospital anyways, if it was possible to reanimate him, it’d be too late. And James knows this, Brett told them how it worked. Lindsey teached them that kind of stuff, they heard of other crew being striked that way.

James looks at Brett and the man is not whispering anymore, but his mouth is still moving and making unknown prayers or reassuring speech. It’s for himself now. James looks back to Aleks’ face and decides to close his eyes.

He was never that gentle with the man, ever. A soft touch, a sacred move to hide what were the sneaky eyes of his friend. He’ll miss that. For a second he feels himself huming a melody he doesn’t recal, and hopes that he’ll wake up, that’s he’s just being the little asshole he always was.

In the other car, they all realized what was going on. They changed the route, it can only mean one thing and Anna keeps it to herself while holding the wheel tightly, jaws tense. Trevor, Asher and Jakob are silent, sitting in the back, staring at the other car where they can see Brett and James’ heads.

A member of the crew just fell, the first one.

Trevor feels tears on the edge of his eyes, he can’t decide which feel he wants to stop on. He’s mostly angry because Aleks was a dick sometimes, but he was good at his job despite being lazy too. He shouldn’t have been the first victim, it should have been him.

Jakob tries to distract himself by thinking of good things, at least good moments with the guy. Doesn’t want to remember him as his bad sides, can’t tolerate remembering him as the bloody mess on the floor. He wants to run away, wants to wake up from this bad dream so he keeps throwing himself in a good dream with laughs.

Asher hopes Aleks will wake up. He wants to believe that James and Aleks were friends because they are both immortals, otherwise how was that weird destructive friendship able to work ? Maybe they even know more things about that condition than Miller, because they are two and were able to make researches about it ? Maybe Brett is one too ? Maybe they selected the crew because they knew who was an immortal ? He’s lost but can’t help but wish.

Their street appears, the warehouse’s gate opens. Joe quickly get off the car to open the garage door to get the car inside.

They made it back, somehow.

James wants to help Brett with Aleks but the man doesn’t let him so he doesn’t insist and just watches him as he hold his friend and walks slowly. It is so strange, so unreal. They do not even turn the lights on, only having the streets lamps to see inside. But it’s enough, there’s nothing to see anyways.

Brett carefully lays Aleks down on their small break room table. So fragile, so pale even with all the blood on his chin and clothes, an arm on his chest, the other along his body. It looks like a recumbent effigy with that dim light, truly peacefull.

Nobody says a word, not really approaching the body, not really doing anything beside standing there and watching.

James changes that by throwing himself on the couch, exhausted by everything. His eyes are on Aleks’ face but he just looking past that, stuck in his mind. Trevor then walks away, taking the cue and goes sobbing in the parking lot followed by Joe who pats his back slowly.

Anna leaves, needing to take a walk, perhaps she’ll call her boyfriend to talk, she truly doesn’t feel like talking with any of the guys right now.  
She can’t take it. Jakob and Asher just stand, not moving from their spot, mostly looking at Brett now.

Aleks died.

It was unreal, and Brett couldn’t really believe but his guts were telling him that yeah, it happened. His friend and little brother just died. He knew it’d happen eventualy, but he never imagined it’d be this way, never imagined it’d be Aleks first.

The muscular man lets himself fall on the floor next to the table, his hand shakily grabbing his dead friend’s one once again. He holds it, looking for a pulse, anything. Aleks always had soft hands, feminine ones almost. A fragile being playing tough.

Brett whispers against the skin, one last time as a goodbye, something to keep him grounded.

“We are home, you are home.”

James heard everything, his attention coming back to what is happening in real time. He looks at Brett and feels even worse for the man who knew Aleks for so long, discovered him in the streets and took care of him. It was his family, he was their family. Aleks was his brother.

In theory they have a protocol for when someone of the crew dies, but it never happened, and now they are useless. Jakob is still unmoving, but he’s trying to get reassurance in the small heat of Asher standing next to him. They don’t know what to do, and if they knew they probably wouldn’t do it anyways. It’s a hard hit, it’s the life they decided to follow and until now they felt…well, immortal.

Trevor comes back with Joe, he’s sniffing, feets heavy on the ground. He tries not to look for Aleks but does eventualy and tears are coming back. He might be as afraid of the situation as he’s sad, he can’t really tell himself.

Joe looks at James for a long time, until James looks at him back. James shakes his head before standing up and walking away. Nobody is asking where he’s going, and that’s good. He opens his car and grabs a little bag from the glove compartment and then he walks toward the grass patch. He has to jump over the fence and does it because it’s not a time to care for that kind of things.

He sits on the grass and opens the bag, a small smile on his face. Aleks and him made a promise a long time ago, something dumb which they took seriously. Aleks wanted that to be done, it was important to him for some reasons. And even if James mocked him for it, he bought everything for both of them and is about to honor that promise.

In the bag there is a little bottle of vodka, two pills and some powder.

James abandonned that shit some times ago but the time was for mourning and honoring his friend. So he swallowed the pills, opened the bottle and drank all of it, grimacing a bit. Then he made a line of powder on his foreharm, looked at the sky and smiled again, his voice a bit rough.

“Goodnight, you asshole.”

Then he snorted it, falling flat on the grass, letting himself cry this time. He truly wished Aleks would wake up, but it wasn’t happening. Aleks wasn’t like him, he was simply a flawed human that life decided to wipe away like nothing.

For a second, he wished he could die. Well, he could die. But he wasn’t allowed to stay dead unlike most of humanity.

Fuck, he hates it so much.

That whole immortality thing was so much bullshit but at the same time, if he wasn’t an immortal then…He would have never met ImmortalHD. He cherishes the memories, already did anyways. Immortality was what made it possible, but now it’s taking his friend away.

He’s sobbing now, because he can’t pretend nothing affects him.

They imagined their death as something big, or at least with a last memorable line, not like that. Aleks couldn’t say a word, couldn’t fight. And that’s why James think it was a bad idea to be so close to…mortals. Hell, he can’t even tell who’s mortal or not anyways, but since he knows another immortal, he should have just…started a life isolated on a mountain with goats with him.

No, that’s unfair, Aleks was one of the greatest thing that happened to him.

“I’ll miss you, Aleksandr” and he will.

Hell, he’s even missing him right now, because he truly realizes what’s going on unlike the others who are just trying to. Unlike Brett who’s holding a dead man’s hand wishing that it’ll wake him up. It will not happen, because if it was the case, you need less than a minute to just…stand again. Joe and him made the test once and then stopped because they feared that…Maybe one day they’ll just die for real like everybody else.

But no, James was standing, he survived four deaths.

He looked at the sky, searching for stars but not seeing any because of the light pollution. And he wondered once again if something existed after death. If yes, he wishes Aleks is somewhere good. Maybe he reincarnated. He doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on. He’s giving a chance to every option because after all his own case is supposed to not exist.

Maybe he’ll see Aleks again someday. Maybe the Cow Crew will be reunited fully again in years, after everyone reincarnate and find James and Joe again, he hopes in a corner of his mind that it's what is going to happen. He decides to believe in that idea.

His little comfort is broken when he hears Brett yelling. The man is angry but his voice is full of sadness. James stands and fights against the effects of the drugs to go inside.

Joe is trying to give back sense to Brett ? What in the world was he thinking ? Clearly, Brett is in too much grief to do anything about the situation, he won’t let go of the Russian. He’s not ready.

“Joe” is all James says and the man lets go of Brett to go near him.

Asher is still standing, still in conflict with himself, not coming in terms with immortality and death in such a short time. Trevor and Jakob aren’t around, but since James can hear sobbing, he knows they are close enough.

Joe is looking pained, but even more because they need to bury the body before the sun rises, before people can see. He’s practical, even if he’s a guy that might be clueless about things, he’s competent in others. But you can’t do anything to force a man give up on someone he deeply cared about even if they treated each other like shit sometimes.

“Give him time.” James says, and when he hears more sobs he adds what’s honest. “Give us time”

“But we don’t have time.”

James shrugs, because…The one who runned out of time right now doesn’t care about burial anymore, he doesn’t care about what’s going on. Maybe he sees them, maybe he doesn’t, but he doesn’t care anyways.

And they just stand, moving just a little at a time. Anna comes back, sits at the main desk looking at dogs accessories vaguely. Jakob and Trevor talk about memories to make them feel better in another room. Joe closed the garage door for now and is looking through his phone for dumb tweets the man made. Asher sat on his spot, still unable to think what to do. James went on the couch again, lying on it, lost in memories. Brett is still holding Aleks’ hand even if it gets colder, even if his own hand is warm enough.

Hours passes, Trevor fell asleep on a chair as well as Jakob. Anna decided to go home. Asher went for a walk and is still not back. Joe fell asleep somewhere in the garden. It’s only James and Brett left awake. And they do not talk for a long time until Brett decides to break the silence.

“We have to finish this.”

He sounds so old and tired suddenly. And James knows he sounds tired when they give him bullshit but of course it's different. He gets up to help him and to his surprise, Brett doesn’t try to carry Aleks, he takes his phone and calls someone.

The someone is Adam Kovic, he calls for his help and for a last goodbye. The whole Funhaus will come soon. He does the same for Suptic’s crew, the sugarpine 7. When he’s done, he nods to James and then they carry his body in the car. They still have blood on them, the car still has blood in it. But it doesn’t matter.

They wake up everyone, and Asher comes back with a nice timing for the ride as well as Anna and by extent Lindsey. Brett quickly tells what the plan is and James runs in the backroom to get a bag before they go outside. The sun is still down but the sky slowly takes colors. It’s alright. They’ll take the time they need. The drive out of the city is long, silent, full of eyes blinking to stay awake and trying to control any more tears.

They arrives at an abandonned shed known for being the property of criminals. Well, Brett owns a part of it, anonymously of course, as well as Kovic and Suptic. They used to meet here sometimes for some deals and BBQ. But Brett has another idea of a ritual BBQ that Aleks would have loved like he loved fire.

Many cars are here, their friends came like they promised. And everyone work to get wood and pile it while some are trying to crack jokes about the dead man, memories. Suptic is trying his hardest to make the mood lighter by explaining with details the car race they won dressed as 198X young people, how Aleks (Samuel) had to kiss James (Amanda) because he promised it before it. The money they made was worth it, in James head at least.

And soon there is enough wood. James takes the right to carry Aleks by himself and lay him down on it (with mild help from Kovic). And they stand around, watching and making soft goodbyes in their own way. James runs towards the car and gets the bag, and he talks loudly for everyone to hear, and maybe for Aleks to hear somewhere.

“You said you wanted to go out with a fucking boom, so I took fireworks because bombs are too dangerous. Now you can’t say I’m not considerate, you asshole !”

And he puts many of them in the wood around Aleks’ body, taking a last time to pat his friend shoulder and then he lets Brett the honor of lighting the fire. It isn’t as much impressive since the sun is rising up, but it’s still for his honor, like a viking he was not but the pyromaniac life he loved.

And the fire burns and burns, the fireworks explode and shine a little despite the light coming in the sky. Trevor says he regrets not taking pop corn and cries right after that, but it’s alright, everyone can cry. The fire takes away slowly the man’s physical form. People are leaving slowly, some are not taking the car for now, wanting a walk in the wildness before that, some going in the shed to talk a little about everything.

Some like James just stand there until the end. A part of the Cow Crew decides to leave for a long walk despite being tired, to think about what comes next, to maybe…turn the page. Asher looks at James once again before walking away and this time James gets it. It’s unspoken but he understands the look and the implication. They need to talk about it later.

And people go, leaving the Cow Crew to themselves as the fire slows down. The sun is warm and the sky turns pink. Brett and James are standing there, tired. Joe is in the car, sleeping and waiting for the others to come back.

Brett starts talking, ranting about his past life, things James never knew but Aleks did. They talk about life, about their particular lives, their “job”, the risks. And Brett ends with what James was expecting him to say.

“I’m done with this life.”

It’s not a surprise. It’s getting harder and today was…one hell of a day. Maybe Brett just needed something like that to give up, James isn’t mad at him for that decision at all. He doesn’t know if he wants to continue either. If the others are okay then he’ll follow. Maybe it’ll be a regular dog day care now ? It’s too early to tell.

Then, there’s the implication of Asher. But it’s another thing. Oh and…

“Brett…”

“Mh..?”

“I’ll take care of Mishka.”

“Sure thing.”

James is sure Aleks once said he wanted his dog to go to Joe if anything happened to him, but he justs wants her to play with Ein and the two to…remind him what their friendship was. It’s dumb, but that’s all he wants for now.

That’s all they have left since their immortal is no more.

**Author's Note:**

> There, it’s done.  
> Tell me what you think of it, I accept rage and sadness and everything in between. Also I know there’s a missing fic in all of that, the “There is no god - part 2″ where we learn about Asher’s condition (as well as Miller) but it’ll be done one day. Maybe. I’m sorry


End file.
